Critical care nursing clinics of North America
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A variety of neuromonitoring techniques are available to aid in the care of neurocritically ill patients. However, traditional monitors lack the ability to measure brain biochemistry and may provide inadequate warning of potentially reversible deleterious conditions. ⋯ Its use is most frequently documented in traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Incorporating CMD into clinical practice is a multidisciplinary effort.
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This article reviews current literature regarding the neuro intensive care unit (ICU) and the ICU setting in general regarding delirium, pain, agitation, and evidence-based guidelines and assessment tools. Delirium in the ICU affects as many as 50% to 80% of patients. ⋯ We reviewed current national clinical guidelines, validated tools for assessing pain, agitation/sedation, and delirium. We also reviewed a delirium risk-assessment/prediction tool.
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Advances in technology have resulted in a plethora of invasive neuromonitoring options for practitioners to manage while caring for the complex needs of the critical care patient. Although many types of invasive neuromonitoring are available to the practitioner, intraparenchymal monitors and external ventricular devices are used most frequently in the clinical setting and are the focus of this article. In addition, multimodality monitoring has been noted to confer a survival benefit in patients with this complex type of invasive neuromonitoring and is discussed as well.
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Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am · Mar 2016
ReviewOptic Nerve Sheath Diameter Ultrasound and the Diagnosis of Increased Intracranial Pressure.
Ultrasound has been used for almost 30 years in a wide variety of clinical applications and environments. From the austerity of battlefields to the labor and delivery ward, ultrasound has the ability to give clinicians real-time, noninvasive diagnostic imaging. Ultrasound by emergency physicians (and all nonradiologists) has become more prevalent and has been used for examinations such as the transcranial Doppler to evaluate for stroke, cardiac function, FAST and EFAST examinations for trauma, and now increased intracranial pressure (ICP) via Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter Ultrasound (ONSD). The ONSD is a valid and reliable indicator of ICP.
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The neurologic examination (neuroexamination) is one of the most powerful tools available to nurses and physicians caring for patients with neurologic or neurosurgical illness. Assessing cranial nerve function is one of the most vital components of the neuroexamination. The pupillary light reflex helps to evaluate the status of the second and third cranial nerves and is one of the most well-known elements of the cranial nerve examination. Automated pupillometers have been developed that provide objective measures of size of the pupil and the responsiveness of the pupil to light (neuropupillary index).